“This morning. I thought I'd ask her first. You're a tougher nut to crack.”
“Dad, don't say that.” Although why I didn't want him to say that was a mystery. He wasn't wrong. “I always want to spend Thanksgiving with you.”
“You also don't like change. I know that, too.”
“Well, we're looking forward to coming up. We'll take the train. It'll be a big adventure.”
Amy walked by. “Dessert's ready. Tell Dad I'll call him back.”
“Gotta go, Dad. Duty calls.”
He laughed. “Love you, honey.”
“Love you, too.” I hung up Amy's phone, making a mental note to give her crap about Dad later. She'd had plenty of opportunity to tell me about his new girlfriend and Thanksgiving. I joined everyone at the table and we all dug in. One bite of the gooey apple and caramel concoction and my resentment over the phone call evaporated. “Ames. This is phenomenal.”
“It is,” Eamon agreed, going in for another bite.
The wine started to flow again, especially after dessert, when we chatted about Thanksgiving. Eamon said he'd book the train tickets for everyone—his treat, and Luke said he'd book a car to pick us up at the station. It was all sewn up then. Ready or not, I was not only headed home, I was bringing Eamon with me.
He rubbed his belly for what must've been the twentieth time. “Amy, fantastic meal. Well done.”
I took that as our cue to head out. It was late anyway, nearly eleven. Eamon requested an Uber and we said our goodbyes. In the car back into the city, Eamon and I held hands, both of us staring out the window in a food-induced stupor.
“My dad's excited to meet you and Fiona,” I said.
“Can’t wait to meet him.” He squeezed my hand. “It means a lot that you'll take me there, Katherine. It means a great deal.”
I smiled at him. “It means a lot to me that you'll come. You'll love my dad. He's the sweetest guy.”
I turned back and rested my head against the window. My dad really was incredibly kind and generous. Even with his occasional flakiness, we never questioned that he loved us. He never got mad. His temperament was almost always even. He'd even been that way when ten year-old me finally worked up the nerve to tell him about Mom and Gordon.
“Daddy, do you know Gordon from the flower shop? The delivery man?” I asked when Dad came into my room to check on me. I’d been deathly ill all day, Sunday. I swallowed hard, which hurt. My throat was dry and felt like an oven.
“I suppose I do. I think I met him once.”
“Mom sometimes has him stay over at our house. When you're out of town. Or sometimes she takes us to his house and we sit in the living room and watch TV while she goes into the bedroom with him.”
That was the moment when I truly saw just how lovely my dad's eyes were—the most beautiful pale shade of blue. “Has this been going on for a long time?”
“He's been coming over since you got the job from Apex Hardware. But Amy and I saw her kiss him at the flower shop way before that.”
“I see.”
“You aren't going to get a divorce are you? Please don't get a divorce. Maybe you can talk to Mom and tell her to stop? Amy and I don’t like him. He's not funny and he's not even that nice to us, either.”
He held his finger to his lips and glanced over his shoulder at my bedroom door. Mom had gone to church by herself that day, but he knew she'd be home soon. “It's okay, honey. I don't want you to give this another thought, okay? Everything will be just fine. I'll take care of it. I promise.”
“Really?” Dad had always been a softie, wanting to eradicate any problem that arose. Still, that had seemed a little too perfect an answer.
“Yes, really. You just concentrate on getting better, okay?” He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. “Everything will be just fine.”
Little did I know that fewer than twenty-four hours later, my mother would be dead.
Chapter Fifteen
We tookthe train from Penn Station to Old Saybrook. Eamon had booked the five of us in business class, and paid for the tickets. An early wedding gift, he'd said, with a smile and a shrug of his skinny shoulders. I wasn't sure he could be any sweeter.
He and I held hands and watched out the windows as the snowy landscape chugged past. It was not common to have any snow this early in the winter, but the weather had been all kinds of wonky and much of the Northeast had been hit hard. Some parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts had more than eight inches. Normally this time of year, you got nothing more than mud.
